Figure Out
by Xyliette
Summary: Set during the S2 finale, I reinterpret and change the outcome of the episode so that it is geared toward Derek and Addison being together. There's discussion of punch spiking, more dancing than ever necessary at a hospital prom.


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_Figure Out_  
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"You think I wanna be looking at you? You think I wouldn't rather be looking at my wife? I'm married! I have responsibilities! She doesn't drive me crazy, she doesn't make it impossible for me to breathe, she doesn't make me sick to my stomach thinking about my vet touching her with his hands. Man, I would give anything not to be looking at you right now."

Derek feels the tension in the room mounting by the second. He doesn't know why he followed her in here. It wasn't a choice really, just an auto pilot moment. He watches her stare back at him silently, asking, begging him to do something about it.

Addison doesn't drive him crazy, she doesn't make it impossible for him to breathe whenever she's around and he outright refuses to entertain the idea of Finn's grimy hands on her soft, smooth skin. Anyone else's hands on her skin for that matter. He worked too damn long and too damn hard to stop seeing Mark's hands on her and there is no way he's going to picture anyone else's in his place. "She doesn't drive me crazy." He repeats slowly and softly feeling his heart rate begins to drop. His blood stops pounding through his ears long enough for him to realize what he's doing, what this looks like to Meredith. "Excuse me."

He steps out of the exam room and slides down the empty wall immediately behind him. Of course this would happen at a time like this, of course it wouldn't come to him easily or without incitement. He's always hated that about life. Someone is dying? Their sins are null and void. It takes that extreme force to set the world right again. Gradually he digs his heels into the ground and forces himself upright. He could've just ended it. Done the one thing he's been wanting to since his wife showed up in head to toe black. Yanked the pin on the grenade, pulled the trigger, secured the rope with which to kill himself but he didn't and he thinks that out of all the people in the world the one person who is going to see it his way is the woman he has spent the last few months trying to deny in whole.

He passes a group of frantic nurses on their way to save someone with their cart and he couldn't care less. Sometimes, in the past, he would follow them just to make sure there were no head or nerve injuries he could help out on but now he doesn't need to ignore and evade. When he finally sees her sipping on more horrible punch, stuck making small talk with the vet, he smiles. Wide and bright. There's something to be said for finding the one individual in the universe who doesn't drive you up a wall and who doesn't purposely, when unprovoked, go about making your life a living hell just because they can.

For all of their problems and differences they are, or rather they used to be, very comfortable with one another and Derek likes comfort. He enjoys the terrain of the familiar and there is no one he knows better than the redhead in the long dress ten feet away fake laughing about some stupid animal story. He chuckles to himself when she hits the tone in her voice that suggests she'd rather be scrubbing in on a routine 20 hour surgery on zero sleep and no coffee. They're changed, a little for the better, mostly for the worse but he can work with it. He will work with it if she'll still have him because even though sometimes he drives her to the point of insanity, it never particularly bugs him when she flies of the handle. He knows what to expect and what to do when it all simmers down and admittedly the freak outs are even kind of cute.

He didn't think he knew these things twenty minutes ago but evidently all he needed was a little push.

"Can I borrow her?" Derek asks, interjecting when he hears the words 'deer', 'rabbit' and 'car'. He knows for fact that his wife does not receive any pleasure from listening to an entertaining story about road kill. She's just not that woman.

"Oh, thank you." She says with a perturbed eye roll when they are far enough away, "I thought I was going to have to shoot myself to get away. I mean he's a nice enough guy-"

"Can we finish our dance?" Derek asks, offering his arm and steering her out onto the floor when she obliges. Their cheeks brush together as they sway and he feels his hand pressing into her back a little tighter than necessary, especially considering she isn't plastered out of her mind and in danger of losing her balance. His mind drifts to the exam room run in and all the clouded thoughts that are occupying the majority of his brain.

All he knows is he is done with Meredith and unlike his seething accusations in the stairwell, he actually feels closure this time. He feels light and uninhibited. His lips take it upon themselves to find Addison's bare shoulder as they shuffle along and when he pulls away he doesn't miss the suspicious glance she is casting down at her flushed skin. "What are you doing?"

"Kissing my wife." Derek replies guiltily, "That okay with you?"

Her lips purse in confusion but she decides to just let it go. Must be all the punch and teenage memories of braces and bad afro hair. "I guess-"

"Good." He leans down again, letting his mouth trail up to her neck, and pauses when he feels her dig her neatly manicured nails into the back of his hand. "What?"

"Have you been drinking tonight or something?"

"Not unless you spiked the punch." He murmurs close to her ear.

"I wouldn't-"

Derek grins and cuts her off, "Ah, but you have."

Astonished at the accusation Addison pretends to being offended by placing her free hand over her heart, "That was once."

"Twice." Derek corrects, "But no one said I didn't enjoy it- especially after."

Addison laughs despite herself and pulls back thoroughly confused by her manhandling husband. She grabs the knot in his tie in an attempt to "straighten" it and assesses whether or not his pupils are dilated. Upon finding normalcy she sighs and resumes their pathetic excuse for dancing. She ignores the way his hands keep gradually slipping lower and lower down her back and finally when he reaches the point of indecent touching she throws her hands in the air effectively stopping their movement, "Ok what are you on? Do I need to take you upstairs and run a tox screen?"

"What do you say we head out to the parking lot and make like old times-"

"Derek!" Her eyes open wide is disbelief. This is not the man she has been living with. This is, well honestly, this is her husband.

"What?" He questions innocently.

"You are-I..." She pauses for thought and he looks at her knowingly.

"I am what?" He smiles mischievously.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing." Derek shakes his head choosing not to notice how his behavior could be construed as anything other than normal for the pair.

Addison swirls her finger in the air, "There's something going on here. What do you know?"

"This is my first prom, stop ruining the moment for me Addie."

She relents and steps back into the embrace, "This conversation isn't over."

"I bet it's just beginning." He teases.

"For the record," she whispers quietly, "you're scary like this."

"Noted."

Addison can't stop her mind from flipping into overdrive and concocting as many stories as possible while they make it through not one but three songs without speaking, "If you took something or if you don't feel well, you can tell me you know. I can help-"

"Addison," Derek nearly growls, his frustration beginning to show, "I'm trying to show you I care here."

Oh." She pauses as the thought dawns on her, "Ohh..." Her lips curl upward involuntarily as the pink of her cheeks begins to brighten rapidly, "Okay." Keeping her eyes carefully locked on his she pushes forward hesitantly and kisses him, subtly testing the new waters. Their warm mouths spark briefly, well within the restraints of her unspoken, public displays of affection guideline, and when she pulls away Derek's face is glowing warmer than her own.

"You kissed me." Derek grins dorkily, breaking up their little two step again.

"Yes." Addison nods, overwhelmingly shocked but still proud of the ridiculous look she just put on her husband's face.

"In public."

"Yes."

"I think you're the one that's been drinking. Let me see those eyes." Derek reaches out to guide her chin to the necessary place desired for optimal visual contact but in the quest loses his way and pulls her back in for another kiss, this time making sure that it's more than a simple peck on the lips.

"This is ridiculous." She announces when she catches her breath.

"I think it is just getting good." Derek smirks and snakes an arm out to bring her even closer.

Addison shakes her head and playfully slaps his chest when he gets too grabby again, "You drive me crazy."

Unable to control his twelve year old impulses he gives in with a sly wink, "I'll show you crazy later."

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End file.
